1998 Aged Yiwu

This tea certainly is easy to drink. I am fond of Yiwu teas since they tend to be mellow and smooth. This 1998 is the oldest Yiwu leaf I’ve had. Just as expected mellow and smooth with a prominent brown sugar sweetness. The nice full leaves produce a dark bronze soup which is very clear. A silk-like body is found in the sip. Nice aftertaste which lingers. I was left with a little mouth and throat dryness but this often happens when I drink tea. More important to note, the tea left me quite relaxed after the session. Great endurance yielding many, many flavorful resteeps – I steeped the same leaves eight times and I’m still doing 5 second steeps. Overall sweet, dense, and pleasant. The quality of these aged Yiwu leaves is something to admire – this is one amazing tea!

I received a very generous sample of this tea with a White2Tea order, my 10g sample would cost around $14 or so based on the cost of a 25 g sample. Piggy me stuffed 5 g of it into my 60 ml senchado pot. Two rinses to break up the cake. Storage taste of bamboo and paper was not unpleasant but I was eager to get down to the business of this tea. Leaves start out looking surprisingly dark green but quickly turn brown as the dark orange liquor emerges.

Steep 1 Storage. Sip and toss.
Steep 2 Storage. Sip and toss.
Steep 3 Storage, my teeny pot is now stuffed to the gills, leaves coming out the top, no room to spread.
Steep 4 Aged wood, spicy and warm. Description says to expect astringency in early steeps, I am not getting any of that aside from a little dryness on the tongue.
Steep 5 Warm brandy in wood, still a bit spicy. I am getting really warm now.
Steep 6 Relaxation, this tea has completely aged, at least my sample has. No top notes left, all bare bottom sticking out for me.

Steep 7 Son comes downstairs to cook ramen. “Actually I want tea,” he says. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.” Sure, of COURSE he does. Son decides on tea in one cup, if doesn’t like it, he’s done. If he likes it, he drinks several. Thus he consumes Steeps 7-9. I tell him this tea was put away when he was 7 years old. He likes it. Sigh.

Steep 10. These leaves are just getting started with the way I stuffed the pot. Still at no more than 40 seconds of steep time, cooler water. I got room for many more steeps, longer steep times and returning to boiling water at the end which could be a couple days from now.

This cake is $300+ but an excellent value brewed tight like I just did. Two days easy with two people here drinking just 5 g. Yiwu is known for its smoothness and this one is like silk and easy to take. Couldn’t make this bitter no matter what you do. Buy the cake, people, the sample is 1/10 of the way there cost-wise, and trust me you’ll be wanting more.

Edit: next day am still steeping the same 5 g. Emptied into a larger pot now that it is fully spread out. Past 15 steeps am only at 40 secs. The energizer bunny of teas, this just keeps going and going. Worked out that 5 g pot/20 steeps equal $.25 per cup. Take that to your local Starbucks.